Sunday, June 05, 2011

MANILA, Philippines - After waiting for more than two decades, residents of Novaliches in Quezon City will, at last, be getting two additional congressional districts in the coming mid-term elections in May 2013.

This, after the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 4245 “reapportioning the second legislative district of Quezon City, thereby creating two additional legislative districts and 12 Sangguniang Panlungsod seats from such reapportionment.”

Under the bill, Novaliches, currently the biggest congressional district in Metro Manila, and the entire country, with a voting population of over 600,000 will be divided into three congressional districts.

At present, Quezon City is composed of four legislative districts as apportioned in an ordinance appended to the 1987 Constitution by the Constitutional Commission of 1986 during the administration of the late President Corazon Aquino .

Once H.B. 4245 is approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III, the number of Quezon City’s legislative districts will increase to six, the same as that of Manila. The number of Quezon City councilors will likewise increase to 36 from the present 24.

The newly-created legislative districts will be called District 5 and District 6. The present three other congressional districts of Quezon City will maintain a status quo.

Under the bill, the current second legislative district will retain the following big and populous barangays: Bagong Silangan, Batasan Hills (site of the Batasang Pambansa), Commonwealth, Holy Spirit, and Payatas.